Courtesy of Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader.
Photo courtesy of Skateman Steve. It was very neat mural of the name. Still fresh to this day. However, Skate City SD ruined it by painting with their name and 2 wheels on it and on smaller wall on the end of the rink. Looks plain compared to the pipe or balloon font shown above.
Photo Courtesy of Emmie Love DuBray on Facebook. With softer and color lights. Noticed the lights on the ceiling? Chinese Lantern style pendent and colorful light tubes. Skate City ruined it by removing those unique lights.
Courtesy of Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader. Beautiful rink, the mural was gone and painted over. Taken just days before it became Skate City.
Likely the sign had the name, "Carousel" above "Skate" and it was removed by the Skate City company that put theirs below the big fonts, "Skate." Likely the name Carousel was placed above because of much room above but smaller fonts to fit in that sign. You can tell the style of sign. Quite 1960s/70s look.
Viewing of the corner of the property. You can even see the sign on the wall on the side of the building to face the street there. Kind of off of Salmon Pink Tan color walls. Not a good Google map photo though because you can tell the left side is darker than the right taken on a gloomy day.
Carousel Skate, 2901 West 3rd St, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Skate City SD, 22901 West 3rd St, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Still operational)
Skate City SD, 22901 West 3rd St, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Still operational)
Carousel Skate was a very unique nice looking rink especially at the end after it ran over 40 years. It was beautiful. You will see the photos. It began in 1974 and closed on June 27, 2015. Many skaters were sad about that closing but glad the rink is back but under different owners who are part of a corporation rather than Mom-and-Pop business. That is the only sad part that many skaters were feeling in 2015. In this day and age, people prefer Mom-and-Pop as they are noticing so many businesses take over and turn from Mom-and-Pop into corporation themselves then buy out other businesses. Bit hypocritical. Would you agree?
Three generations of family ownership started with Cal Campbell, the couple that was closing the rink were Anne and Chris Erickson and the granddaughter, Kelly was the manager. I am not sure if she is still manager there though.
Anyway, I was quite disappointed that the new owners ruined the mural. I love that art work! One of the finest mural of the name of the rink... so far on Dead Rinks! It was very colorful bubbly 1980s/1990s balloon-like font. See photo above.
They had originally tube colored lights. The Skate City photo of the rink lately cuts off the ceiling pretty much but appeared to me that they have removed the. Very original to have those lights! Very unique as well because rarely a rink has that kind of lights above the rink. But removing it really destroyed the uniqueness and becomes too common. That is the problem with corporations rather than the Mom-and-Pop businesses that was trying to be competitive. More and more corporations are doing that. You can see the evidence started with fast food chains then car dealerships you can see they are similar. Have you noticed that? The Honda Dealerships, Chevrolet Dealerships, etc? Some department stores or theme stores (such as Bass Pro and Gander Mountains (Outdoors) are jumping in with sameness. Pretty much many businesses will do that. This is quite boring with sameness. This is my point with the only of kind design with Sibley's in Fayetteville Mall (no longer a mall but a plaza now), that it had that Pop-Abstract architectural design. No other places had that. Nice going Caldor that wanted sameness by tearing Fayetteville Mall Sibley's down and built boring Big-Box design--all straight walls with curved corners. Boring! Sibley's was really unique.
This was and still is the largest rink in SD. Skate City SD which opened August 1, 2015.
The exterior had a look of a gable warehouse with 1960s/1970s wood shingles Mansard Roof with Red Brick brick colors. Really dated and remembered those styles back then (I clearly remembered at this Deaf school where i resided from 1st to 8th Grade that the dormitory had that mansard wood shingles and the bricks. This was exactly similar. That helped dated when the rink was opened. They said it was opened in 1974. That was correct style at the time. Deaf school dormitory was built in 1970).
Rink Size: N/A Floor: White Polyurethane coated, Concrete?
Floor Layout: Plain (has no lines!)
Building Size: N/A Built: N/A Type of Building: Warehouse like, steel sheets Gable with 1970 popular Mansard Roof with wood shingles.
Roof: Combination- Gable and Mansard.
Operated: As Carousel Skate: 1974 to June 27, 2015
As Skate City: August 1, 2015 to present.
Reason for Closure: Sold, retiring.
Wanted: Information regarding any original photos from 70s through 2000s before updated look. Exact date of opening and actual closing date for Carousel.
Sources: Facebook, Skateman Steve on Facebook, Skate City website, B102.7 Radio,
Argus Leader,
© 2019 - 2020 Dead Rinks. All Rights Reserved.
Three generations of family ownership started with Cal Campbell, the couple that was closing the rink were Anne and Chris Erickson and the granddaughter, Kelly was the manager. I am not sure if she is still manager there though.
Anyway, I was quite disappointed that the new owners ruined the mural. I love that art work! One of the finest mural of the name of the rink... so far on Dead Rinks! It was very colorful bubbly 1980s/1990s balloon-like font. See photo above.
They had originally tube colored lights. The Skate City photo of the rink lately cuts off the ceiling pretty much but appeared to me that they have removed the. Very original to have those lights! Very unique as well because rarely a rink has that kind of lights above the rink. But removing it really destroyed the uniqueness and becomes too common. That is the problem with corporations rather than the Mom-and-Pop businesses that was trying to be competitive. More and more corporations are doing that. You can see the evidence started with fast food chains then car dealerships you can see they are similar. Have you noticed that? The Honda Dealerships, Chevrolet Dealerships, etc? Some department stores or theme stores (such as Bass Pro and Gander Mountains (Outdoors) are jumping in with sameness. Pretty much many businesses will do that. This is quite boring with sameness. This is my point with the only of kind design with Sibley's in Fayetteville Mall (no longer a mall but a plaza now), that it had that Pop-Abstract architectural design. No other places had that. Nice going Caldor that wanted sameness by tearing Fayetteville Mall Sibley's down and built boring Big-Box design--all straight walls with curved corners. Boring! Sibley's was really unique.
This was and still is the largest rink in SD. Skate City SD which opened August 1, 2015.
The exterior had a look of a gable warehouse with 1960s/1970s wood shingles Mansard Roof with Red Brick brick colors. Really dated and remembered those styles back then (I clearly remembered at this Deaf school where i resided from 1st to 8th Grade that the dormitory had that mansard wood shingles and the bricks. This was exactly similar. That helped dated when the rink was opened. They said it was opened in 1974. That was correct style at the time. Deaf school dormitory was built in 1970).
Rink Size: N/A Floor: White Polyurethane coated, Concrete?
Floor Layout: Plain (has no lines!)
Building Size: N/A Built: N/A Type of Building: Warehouse like, steel sheets Gable with 1970 popular Mansard Roof with wood shingles.
Roof: Combination- Gable and Mansard.
Operated: As Carousel Skate: 1974 to June 27, 2015
As Skate City: August 1, 2015 to present.
Reason for Closure: Sold, retiring.
Wanted: Information regarding any original photos from 70s through 2000s before updated look. Exact date of opening and actual closing date for Carousel.
Sources: Facebook, Skateman Steve on Facebook, Skate City website, B102.7 Radio,
Argus Leader,
© 2019 - 2020 Dead Rinks. All Rights Reserved.